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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Until further notice, all Council meetings will be held remotely. To live view/ replay the meeting please visit: https://www.youtube.com/embed/LqTm9-EKBfA

Contact: Tracey Anderson 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

1.1  Apologies for absence from Cllr Billington.

 

2.

Urgent Items / Order of Business

Minutes:

2.1  No urgent items.

 

3.

Declaration of Interest

Minutes:

3.1  Chair declared an interest.  Cllr Gordon is a lawyer employed by the Government’s legal department and advises the Department of Works and Pension (DWP).  Cllr Gordon will abstain from any discussions related to benefits.

 

3.2  There were no other declarations of interest.

 

4.

Update on the Impact of Covid-19 on Poverty and Inequalities in the Borough pdf icon PDF 116 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

4.1  The Chair introduced the item, identifying key points of discussions as being:

 

  i. the analysis and assessment of the impact of the pandemic on poverty and inequality

 

ii. information about the areas highlighted in a recent letter from the Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources to a parliamentary inquiry on people with protected characteristics

 

iii. a verbal update on the future and refresh of the corporate plan because of Covid-19.

 

4.2  The Chair welcomed Cllr Williams, Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources; Cllr Selman, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Policy, and the Voluntary Sector; Cllr Kennedy, Cabinet Member for Health, Adult Social Care and Leisure; Cllr Rennison, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Finance, Housing Needs and Supply; Sonia Khan, Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery and Cllr Maxwell, Mayoral Adviser for Older People.

 

4.3.1  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery started the discussion.  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that she was going to start by introducing the first item, and that Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources would cover the submission for parliamentary inquiry before moving onto questions.

 

4.3.2  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery highlighted that item 5, the Corporate Plan refresh, does contain a summary of the impact of Covid-19 on poverty in the borough.

 

4.3.3  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that since the outset of the crisis, mid-March, Policy was concerned about the risks and impacts of Covid-19 on residents and started receiving data early on which was systematically logged, and therefore the Community Impact Assessment document submitted represents a high level, comprehensive summary.  

 

4.3.5  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the level of information received allowed Policy teams to understand the levels of vulnerability in a way that went beyond the prominently publicised health-related vulnerabilities, and allowed them to understand the scale of need presented by the situation.

 

4.3.6  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the understanding allowed Policy teams to adapt the humanitarian response in the early weeks of the crisis, and to identify the medium-term priorities. Essentially, the Community Impact Assessment document was designed as a planning tool for both short and long-term approaches.

 

4.3.7  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that in addition to informing the response to the crisis, the document has also been used to inform the corporate plan.

 

 

4.3.8  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the document allows understanding of how residents have been disproportionately impacted directly by the virus itself, and indirectly, giving the example of older residents, migrant populations, and people from different ethnic minority backgrounds.

 

4.3.9  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery spoke about the cross-cutting impacts that are informing the response, giving examples of digital exclusion for those with no facility or ability to access online services, people with no recourse to public funds, those who have not been in contact with services previously, those who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Covid-19, Corporate and Medium Term Financial Update pdf icon PDF 342 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

5.1  The Chair welcomed the Group Director of Finance and Corporate Resources, Ian Williams to speak about the financial plan.

5.2  The Group Director of Finance and Corporate Resources advised that the Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery would do an overview of the corporate plan first, and then he would speak on the financial plan.

5.3.1  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery prefaced her piece by advising aim was to publish a plan with the direction of travel quickly and that this was an opportunity to hear from Members to feed in any comments before finalising the plan or presenting it for approval.

5.3.2  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised the corporate plan focuses on ways of working in addition to what has already been committed to.  In addition an important element is to consider the opportunities to engage with residents, learn from Hackney Young Futures Commission and to look at culture.

5.3.3  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the 9 priorities from the existing 2018 corporate plan have been simplified and consolidated. There is an increased focus on a cross-cutting basis to prioritise the most vulnerable and key inequalities, particularly racial inequalities, and the priorities are grouped under the Mayor’s Fairer, Safer, Greener priorities.

5.3.4  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the priorities have been looked at holistically as well as consolidated. The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery observed that previously the priorities were looked at from the perspective of the corporate issue, but now they’ve been pulled together with wider priorities in mind such as poverty reduction. There was an increased emphasis on what all partners and departments of the council can do to support these aims.

5.3.5  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the corporate plan talks about the community and equality impacts. The first section of the refresh is about specific things that the council is going to do to reset the equality priorities in light of Covid-19; inclusive leadership and workforce diversity, improving outcomes for young black men, the aging well strategy, and an increased focus on tackling digital divide. 

5.3.6  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that there were also priorities for the Single Equality Scheme that need to be revisited now that there is increased corporate capacity, in particular Turkish/ Kurdish inequalities and that a similar approach to improving outcomes for young black men programme is required.

5.3.7  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery advised that the Aging Well Strategy had not been adopted by Cabinet because it was due to go out for consultation when lockdown commenced. It will be revisited to look at what is required to sharpen the policy in light of Covid-19 and for further stakeholder engagement with organisations that have been supporting older residents during the pandemic.

5.3.8  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery stated that the short, medium and long-term impacts and key points during the reset include highlighting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Communications and Scrutiny pdf icon PDF 190 KB

Minutes:

6.1  The Chair welcomed the Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement while highlighting the need for openness and transparency in the work of scrutiny, observing that the virtual meetings during pandemic have allowed scrutiny to reach a wider audience.

6.2.1  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement opened by expressing the hope was to bring a full communication strategy to Scrutiny Panel earlier in the year which hasn’t been possible due Covid-19, and that her team has been concerned with communicating the council’s response to Covid-19.

6.2.2  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement echoed that virtual meetings has provided opportunities for scrutiny commissions to share their important work.

6.2.3  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that Scrutiny is currently advertised through Hackney Today and Hackney Life publications sent to residents in the borough.

6.2.4  The Director of Communications pointed out that prior to the pandemic, the publications had a low number of subscribers but now they have more than 6,000 subscribers.  These are increasingly having less Covid-19 content. The live streaming is also a tool for promotion and this has seen an increase in the numbers watching live.  The current record in for live viewers has been 312.

6.2.5  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that the role of the corporate communications team has been to promote the meetings via the available channels, but also to promote calls for evidence or resident participation. The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that the scrutiny team’s counterpart role is to keep the communications team informed about upcoming meetings, and to convey the key priorities. The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement went further to say that the responsibility of Chairs is to maintain communications with their link communications officer and raising any requests for additional support through those channels and promoting the meetings through their own channels like social media.

6.2.6  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that it is important for scrutiny’s work to be transparent and for it to be clear that the corporate communications team doesn’t influence the content of that work. That challenge goes beyond a service that promotes meetings The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement expressed that she welcomed discussion with the chairs about the best way to do this.

6.3  The Chair thanked the Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement and her team for their work during the pandemic.

 

Questions, Comments and Discussion

6.4  Members asked how the accessibility of virtual meetings can be maintained once face-to-face meetings resume.  The Members highlighted there was a lack of clarity on the Hackney YouTube channel’s layout calling for a separate section for scrutiny, and suggested that either the link communications officer or scrutiny officers be able to cut highlight clips from meetings in order for chairs to share them. Members acknowledged this role needed training for officers to carry it out.

6.5  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement stated that there is no reason why scrutiny officers could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 14 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

7.1  The minutes were agreed.

 

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 13th May 2020 were agreed as a correct record.

 

8.

Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Minutes:

8.1  The Chair suggested Members conduct discussed about the work programme offline as events relating to Covid-19 continue.

 

8.2  The Chair listed dates of future meetings

 

8.3  The Chair there should be further discussions with the Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery to look at the role scrutiny can play in the corporate plan and in so doing form the work programme. 

 

9.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

9.1  There was no other business.